


i've never so adored you

by doctortwelfth



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: (kinda?), Established Relationship, Everything is Beautiful and Nothing Hurts, Fluff, Future Fic, M/M, Missing Scene, Romance, Social Media, Team as Family, The Avengers Are Good Bros, Tony Stark Has A Heart, i can't believe that's a tag but yes that's exactly what the fic is
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-13
Updated: 2018-07-13
Packaged: 2019-06-09 21:12:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15276291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doctortwelfth/pseuds/doctortwelfth
Summary: It all starts after an incident at the store—fuck off, Clint, grocery shopping together is not doingmarried domestic shit—and suddenly #ironstrange is the next big thing in celebrity shipping.





	i've never so adored you

**Author's Note:**

> should i read over this one more time? yes but am i going to? no it's midnight and i haven't posted in like a month.
> 
> a more accurate summary of the fic would be  
> stephen: *does something perfectly normal like buy milk*  
> tony: *in tears* i saw a man so beautiful i started crying?
> 
> that's it that's the whole fucking story. warnings for utter disregard for the events of ca:cw and iw, gratuitous amounts of fluff, and gratuitous misuse of fandom tropes because certain individuals found my ironstrange angst unacceptable :)
> 
> 4/2/2019: previously called "we were in screaming color" but i've been meaning to change the title for a while now!

Stephen turns around suddenly, putting an end to Tony’s ogling of his backside. This, Tony feels, an unfairness to the extreme. Stephen's ass is a work of fucking art.

“Stop staring at my ass, Tony,” the man in question has the audacity to say, which is a completely unfair assumption since Stephen can't even prove where his eyes were.

“It's pretty, babe,” Tony tells him. “You don't even know if I _was_ staring at your ass, it's not like you can see me do it.”

Stephen just raises an eyebrow and continues walking backwards down the aisle with his hands in his pockets.

Fuck, that's kind of hot.

“Can't I?”

Wait, _what._ “You what? Can you, like, use magic to do that? Extra eyes and shit—Stephen, why do you look like that—oh my God, you can project eyes or something on the back of your head, can't you—"

Stephen smirks at his increasingly panicked tone, saying nothing.

Tony huffs. “It’s fine, you know I'd still love you no matter how many eyes you have.”

“Oh, wait.” Stephen scrambles a few feet back to snag a box of instant coffee mix, throwing it into the half-filled shopping cart that Tony is currently pushing. “I love you too, but first, coffee.”

Tony wrinkles his nose while looking pointedly at the box, and Stephen glares. (It’s actually adorable, but Tony isn’t going to be one to tell him that.) “You'd buy refrigerated pineapple pizza but not instant coffee?”

“There's better types of coffee!”

“There's better types of _pizza_! Without fruits on them!”

“It was the only type of frozen pizza left in the store, Stephen, what did you want me to do?”

“You're a billionaire,” says Stephen patiently. “You can order in from Chicago every day if you want.”

Tony… can’t argue with that logic. He opens his mouth to try anyway, and Stephen cuts him off with a wave of his hand. “Listen, I'll cook for you if that's what it takes to get fruits off your pizza. Which _I_ eat, I might add.”

He reaches to pull out two cartons of milk from the refrigerated section one aisle over, asking Tony if he wants yogurt, and that's the end of that.

There's really nothing special about this moment, nothing that defines it from the previous one or the next, or the many, many others that he is hoping to share with Stephen. When Tony looks at him, he’s washed out under the fluorescent lights and smiling crookedly with bright eyes, volunteering to cook for Tony as if it isn't the greatest commitment someone has offered him in a while.

He's beautiful. And he's mine, he thinks, tamping down the smile that is threatening to spread across his face, because he knows he’ll look like at besotted idiot if it does.

Instead, Tony kisses him in between one breath and the next, a soft noise escaping into Stephen's mouth as his arms lock around the taller man's shoulders.

It's a good kiss, not in terms of technicalities, but in the way that Tony’s heartbeat thrums with the knowledge of _mine, mine, mine_ and how Stephen's breath responds in kind, hitching in the middle as he tilts his head forwards. It’s a familiar kiss, two people with all the time in the world.

I love him, Tony thinks, and yes, that's exactly right. He does.

* * *

 

> Superhero Romance? Iron Man and Unknown Beau Seen Locking Lips in Grocery Store!
> 
> This past Tuesday, Tony Stark, founder of Stark Industries and part-time Avenger, was photographed kissing an as-of-yet unknown man. While Stark is openly bisexual and has been in several amorous relationships with men before (RELATED | Tony Stark, eternal playboy: 20+ photos that Stark Industries doesn’t want you to see), the real surprise is in the fact that this particular relationship seems to be a little more developed than the hit-and-run flings Stark is normally famous for.
> 
> “They seemed used to each other, but not necessarily in a bad way. They just knew the other well, and there was a lot of casual chatter and teasing that you would see in close couples. I would definitely say this is a long-term relationship.” This comment was made by an anonymous eyewitness to the scene that New York Daily was lucky enough to have made contact with. However, others were not as forthcoming, expressing their disapproval of the photographer’s decision to leak the image online and share such a “private moment”.
> 
> While it is unfortunate that there are no other sources to back this up, all signs seem to point to the fact that Tony Stark and his new lover are close, possibly even in an established monogamous relationship. Obviously, a grocery store is a rather public setting to be seen together in, as well as one that holds certain connotations of domesticity between couples. But given Stark’s reputation and tendency to break things off once they get serious (RELATED | Tony Stark and Pepper Potts, AKA Pepperony: What happened to America’s #1 power couple?), it may only be a matter of time before another Pepper Potts-esque break-up is announced.
> 
> The Internet has predictably exploded, with Avengers fans taking to social media sites such as Twitter and Tumblr to discuss the new turn of events.
> 
> Some are even going so far as to speculate on the identity of Stark’s mysterious beau. The main contender by far seems to be Stephen Strange, better known by his superhero title Doctor Strange (RELATED | Everything we know about Doctor Strange, Master of the Mystic Arts). Although Strange is missing his signature red cloak, Tumblr users have pointed out the distinctive coloring of his hair as well as his height and build relative to Iron Man’s.
> 
> Just a few hours after the publication of the original image, the tags #ironstrange (a portmanteau of the two’s superhero identities, Iron Man and Doctor Strange) and #avengersromance began to trend on multiple social media platforms (RELATED | 12 crazy Avengers ships you didn’t know existed). With both tags combined at nearly 10.1K Tweets, the shippers show no signs of stopping.
> 
> Equally popular seems to be #tstarkoffthemarket, something that women ( _and_ men) all over Twitter are mourning with choice reactions GIFs and Internet memes.
> 
> As far as revealing your relationship status to the general public goes, we think that kissing in a grocery store is a pretty clear indication. Could famed bachelor Tony Stark be settling down at last? And with a fellow superhero no less?

* * *

When Tony walks into the kitchen that morning, the first thing he notices is the presence of the team arranged around the counters and table, or in Natasha’s case, splayed across the bar with one leg dangling down lazily. The fact that four other Avengers (minus Steve, who runs almost religiously and wouldn't skip his routine for anything short of an apocalypse) are in here at the same time is unusual enough that it warrants a double take and a glance at the windows to check that it really is the morning and that he hasn't accidentally walked into team dinner.

No, definitely morning.

What the hell.

Thankfully, Thor leaves almost as soon as he enters, muttering in Asgardian, making the scene a little less strange. It's still giving him mental whiplash to see Nat, Clint, and Bruce, three people with entirely different routines who are rarely seen in the kitchen together unless it's team dinner, amicably finishing up breakfast together.

The second thing he notices, which only happens, embarrassingly enough, after he has downed about half a cup of coffee, is that all three of them are looking at him. It's not obvious—he’s talking about the Black Widow, for God's sake—but it's still there. They're all taking turns stealing furtive glances at him, as if Tony is the last one in on a joke that everyone has helped make.

_What the hell._

He decides to just go for it, because he might live with a bunch of superhumans and spies, but that doesn't mean they get to one-up him.

“Okay, what's going on?” Tony demands to the kitchen at large. No one answers, although Natasha does give him a _look_ , and Bruce makes a faint noise that sounds kind of like pity.

He hasn't been awake long enough to deal with this.

“No, seriously. What?” Just then, a phone begins to ring and Bruce quietly excuses himself.

“Yeah, hi, Pepper,” he says into the receiver as he hastily makes his way out of the kitchen, and Tony must be hearing wrong because since when have Bruce and Pepper been even remotely close to acquaintances, let alone call-each-other-in-the-middle-of-morning type friends?

(Right, since he went onto that three day lab binge without eating or sleeping, which had somehow been a problem for both of them even though he had _literally_ found the secret to perpetual motion, get your priorities straight, Bruce and Pepper.)

But back to the matter at hand. Now even Clint is looking at him with concern, which alone should be cause for tower evacuation.

“Was it a sex tape? Did you accidentally see me in an orgy or something—oh my God, I knew it, wait, which one did you see—"

Clint’s stare turns into an incredulous one. “What do you even mean by which one, Stark?”

“Aha, so it was a sex tape! How bad is it, do I need Pepper on damage control—"

“No, it's not a sex tape, relax, Tony,” cuts in Natasha, suddenly vertical again and putting her plate by the sink. “It's just tabloids again.”

“Oh,” Tony shrugs. That was anticlimactic. “Tabloids are always gonna talk. Food for the masses, yeah?”

When that statement is met by silence, he swallows awkwardly and tries again. “Do you know, I have digitized clippings of all the worst nicknames they've called me before? They're hilarious. You should take a look sometime.”

Natasha glares a _I-don’t-have-time-for-your-self-pity-Stark_ glare at him, and thank God, everything’s going back to normal now and they can forget about whatever this is—

Then her face morphs into an almost sympathetic expression, and she says, “No, nothing like that. They've just gone a bit far this time.” There’s a clattering from the direction of the dishwasher as she begins to pile silverware into it. “Think downright lies. Fake news, fake photographs. Ridiculous, honestly.” Clint nods along with her.

“The whole shebang. We don't even know what the purpose is, since it's barely malicious from a political or business standpoint, but, well.” He shifts a little awkwardly.

“The topic which the tabloids are concerned with might be something personal for you.”

“Yeah, it might be best if you kept away from the whole mess for a while. Let PR and the rest of us deal with it this time,” adds Clint, his words so in sync with Nat’s that Tony would have thought they'd rehearsed it. Maybe it's just a creepy assassin buddies thing.

They're all used to paparazzi and gossip rags. People like controversy, plain and simple, and the very existence of the Avengers is something that invites a fight. As a consequence, none of them are spared the scrutiny. Just last week, some third rate newspaper had tried to call him a toxic warmonger, to which he had to stop Pepper from siccing lawyers onto.

So what is it that's getting everyone else so worked up on his behalf?

It's at that moment that Bruce chooses to return, a paper copy of a newspaper in one hand and his phone still held out in front of it. He's frowning a little at the front page of the paper behind his glasses.

Tony decides to ignore the team’s bewildering statements for now and try to regain a sense of normalcy. He throws an arm around Bruce, ignoring the man's noise of protest, and makes to snatch the paper out of his hand. Bruce is quick, but Tony has been analyzing his movements for weeks now (which, er, actually comes off as really creepy, but it’s only for the Hulkbuster armor, he swears), and just manages to swipe it. He yelps as the edge of the page slices across his fingertip, instinctively bringing the cut to his mouth.

“Paper in this house, Bruce? We are in the heart of the largest industrial tech company in the world and you want to—oh.” He stops short and stares at the page, papercut forgotten.

Emblazoned as the headline are the words _Tony Stark Seen With Mysterious Boyfriend!_ in bold, all-caps type, followed by a blown-up picture of Tony and Stephen—kissing? In some aisle of a public store, no less.

“Damnit, the paps caught that?” Tony makes a face, waving off Bruce and Clint’s increasingly frantic noises.

Natasha is the one who reacts first. Her eyes narrow in something that is distinctly predatory and Tony tears himself away from the page to squeak at the expression.

“What do you mean, the paps caught it?”

Tony squeaks again one more time for good measure. “I—um, Stephen and I were—?”

“Stephen and you?” Natasha’s eyes are almost slits now, and God, someone needs to keep that woman in check. He glances over at Clint, who is unanimously considered their make-the-scary-lady-less-scary person, but he is busy raising an eyebrow at Tony like the rest. Traitors, the whole lot of them.

“Yeah, like—Stephen, my boyfriend?” he tells them, watching expressions go from confused to—well, even more confused.

“Stephen Strange is your boyfriend?” Clint asks with a touch of incredulity in his voice. “Stephen Strange like the Sorcerer Supreme?”

There's something in his tone that Tony bristles at. “Is that what this is about? You're all confused that the almighty Doctor Strange would even glance at someone like me?” He swallows hard, because honestly, he has no argument for that and it's too early in the morning to open this can of worms again—

And Bruce is laughing, small shaking laughs that he’s trying to cover with his hands. He glances backwards at Clint, which sets them both off again, and even Natasha starts to smile with crinkled eyes.

“What the hell, you guys,” Tony snaps. “Listen, my love life is my own business, why do you even care about who I'm fucking at the moment—"

“Oh, Tony, I'm pretty sure it's gone much beyond fucking at this point.” Natasha’s still smiling in a way that Tony isn't sure if is creepy or not.

He’s tired, and confused, and entirely done with this. “And why exactly is Nat telling me what the nature of my relationship with my boyfriend is? I mean, she's right, but the question still stands.”

There’s a silence.

“God, we were fucking stupid,” Clint says. Another laugh tears its way out of Bruce’s lungs at the statement. “We didn’t know you were _dating_! Everyone thought it was… unrequited love, or some shit.”

“We were all waiting for you to get your sad love lives together, and it turns out you were dating all along!” Bruce shakes his head. “There was a betting pool and everything!”

“There’s literally a picture of us kissing on the front page,” he says flatly, choosing to ignore the part about the betting pool. He’ll deal with that later.

Natasha coughs. “Well—Clint, you explain it, I can’t do this right now.” She trails off into Russian, and from Tony’s limited experience of the language, it sounds vividly filthy.

“We might have thought it was a setup by a news agency?” Clint’s voice goes up at the end in a sort of high-pitched, undignified squeal as Tony kicks at his ankles. “Particularly cruel false news? Aren’t you at least happy that we tried to cover it up for your sake?”

“That would—that would have no motive whatsoever, which defeats the entire purpose of false news, birdbrain!” Tony takes a breath. “You're telling me you thought the news was trying to play some sort of weird publicity prank on me, with that story?”

Bruce and Natasha purse their lips and look judgemental, which is unfair considering they’re the ones who fucked up in the first place. Clint half-heartedly throws a spoon at him, and it lands perfectly upright in his half-empty coffee cup.

“And you wanted to do damage control because you thought I'd be upset? To have it rubbed it in my face like that because I was apparently pining over Stephen?” He doesn't wait for an answer. “I hate to agree with Clint for anything, ever, but Jesus. _How_ did you come to such a horrifically wrong conclusion?”

“In our defense, you looked really stupidly gone over that man. No one is that lovesick after they've started dating.”

“Oh my God, no, not another word out of you, Natasha. You're supposed to be a superspy, how did you not know—" Tony’s brain suddenly fully catches up to what's happening and hysterical laughter bubbles out of him. “You are all useless, holy shit, this is your actual job and you couldn't even—"

He is thankfully spared the wrath of two assassins and possibly the Hulk by Steve walking into the kitchen, back from his daily run with Sam.

Steve takes one look at his teammates, in various stages of hysteria (Tony) and/or homicidal rage (the aforementioned murder twins and Bruce, who is wavering between both), then turns around sharply to exit the room.

“God, do I even want to know this time?” Tony hears him mutter under his breath.

“Steve!” calls out Clint, pausing his death-stare at Tony for just a moment. “Hey, Cap, did you know Tony has a boyfriend?”

“What? Oh, um, yeah. He's been dating Stephen Strange for six months now,” comes the reply from the hallway.

“Wait, what? Steve! Steve, _what_?” Bruce spits out the coffee he's drinking and runs out of the kitchen, presumably to yell at Steve for details. Natasha has gone scarily quiet from next to the dishwasher.

“Eight months, actually.” Tony corrects after Bruce is gone, and watches as Clint almost has an aneurysm.

“Did I—did I just get one-upped at this by Captain America? The nonagenarian who isn't supposed to understand social etiquette, let alone relationships?”

Natasha makes a small noise of protest from her corner. “Have you seen him and Barnes go at it?”

Clint drops his head in his heads and and that seems to be the tipping point for him. “No, stop, I've walked in on them twice last week and I'm still hiding from Barnes, he looked ready to go Winter Soldier on me.”

Tony very kindly does not ask FRIDAY to film his Tony-and-Stephen-induced mini meltdown (although Cap and Bucky are getting partial blame for this one, it’s not all his fault), but well. It's not like anyone's going to know if he goes back and saves the security footage later.

Except Nat, because she's scary and knows everything, except for this one time where she _didn't_ , which just makes him laugh harder.

* * *

 

Twenty hours later, Tony posts a photo to his Twitter account, the main one with a follower count off the charts.

It’s a selfie of Tony and Stephen, faces turned inwards towards each other. Tony had taken it while they were in bed on a lazy Saturday morning, and Stephen still looks half-asleep with his cheek pressing into Tony’s shoulder. There’s a beam of light casting shadows across both their faces—it’s one of Tony’s favorite pictures.

The caption simply says #ironstrangeconfirmed, and within half an hour the tag starts trending worldwide.

**Author's Note:**

> twitter reports a record-breaking six total crashes in the hours following the picture. tony and stephen are gonna break the internet and that is the tea. 
> 
> my tumblr is [@doctortwelfth](http://doctortwelfth.tumblr.com). hmu with ironstrange content!!


End file.
